The number of requests from security officials to Yandex about user data increased by almost 30%

The number of requests from government agencies, including security officials, to provide personal data of Yandex users has grown by 27% over the year. should from the company report.

From January to June of this year, Yandex received 19,650 such requests from the authorities. For comparison: in 2020 there were 15,376 of them. The growth rate of the number of requests also increased: if between the first and second half of 2020 the difference was 9.7%, then in 2021 it was already 16.45%.

The number of refusals also increased over the year from 2,468 in the first half of 2020 to 4,153 this year. Most often, government agencies request data from the Yandex.Taxi service (8583), Mail (6445) and Food (1744 requests). The top five included the Yandex.Drive car sharing (1589 requests, 9% of which were rejected), as well as the Yandex ID service (this is the user’s personal page with his data) – 534 requests, 304 of them were rejected.

In Yandex statedthat only requests from government agencies officially filed and executed in accordance with all norms are considered, and only the information that is necessary is disclosed in the response. All requests received unofficially (by phone or e-mail) are rejected, the company assured.

At the same time, in 2019, as part of the case against the police who planted drugs on Meduza journalist Ivan Godunov, became knownthat Yandex.Taxi provided them with information about all of its routes unofficially. By words Golunov, the request from the Ministry of Internal Affairs came by mail to Mail.ru and was not drawn up according to the requirements of the law. The press service of Yandex.Taxi then denied this, pointing out that the request was allegedly drawn up “according to the rules.”

In October 2020, Yandex for the first time published statistics of requests from government agencies. The company is obliged to provide the data of its users in accordance with the norms of the laws “On Police” and “On Operational Investigative Activities”. The FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Federal Customs Service, courts and other authorities have the authority to request data.